Around Town

Oscar Winner, ‘Patriots Day’ Crew Take Over Home of a Watertown Police Officer

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Watertown Police Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese had some house guests in his Westside home this week – a whole crew of them, in fact – including an Oscar winning actor. 

One of the characters in the “Patriots Day” movie about the Boston Marathon Bombings is Pugliese, who was part of the shootout with the bombing suspects in Watertown. He will be portrayed by J.K. Simmons, who won an Academy Award for his role in “Whiplash,” and also appeared in the many other movie and television roles, including “Law & Order” and “The Closer.” Wednesday, the Pugliese household was taken over by film crews from CBS Films, to shot scenes for the film that will hit theaters in Boston, New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 2016.

Around Town

Hollywood Turns Watertown Into a Film Set for ‘Patriots Day’

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It can seem like Watertown has been turned into a Hollywood set recently with scenes from the “Patriots Day” film being shot several places around town. 

The film chronicling the events of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the search for and capture of the suspects stars Mark Wahlberg, who was seen shooting a scene at the Main Street Mobile Station on the evening of May 9. Large crowds gathered on the sidewalk of Main Street, and some lucky fans got to meet Wahlberg after the filming that evening. Exactly where the scene fits in the move is not clear. It was supposed to be in Cambridge, but it is not clear if it is the gas station where the man who was carjacked escaped from the Tsarnaevs, or another gas station. On Monday, the crews headed over to the old Police Station in Watertown Square.

Around Town

‘Patriots Day’ Crews Back in Town to Film at Old Police Station

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Film crews set up at the old Police Station Monday afternoon to shoot another scene from the Boston Marathon Bombing moving “Patriots Day.” Actors wearing Watertown Police uniforms filmed a scene outside the old station, and crews shuttled in and out of the building, too. While no stars were spotted as of 4 p.m., Watertown Police Sgts. Jeffrey Pugliese was on the set, who is being portrayed in the film by Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, who was in town last week shooting a scene at Main Street Mobile.

Around Town

Watertown Writer’s First Novel Based on Her Family’s Experiences as Refugees

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Kathleen Spivack faced many obstacles to publishing her first novel, but the award-winning writer and writing teacher had her book published this year despite being hit by a car while walking to the big meeting with her publisher. While this is her first book, the 77-year-old is far from a newbie when it comes to writing. “They keep saying I’m a debut novelist at 77, but I’ve been writing all my life,” Spivack said, sitting in the living room of her Watertown home. Most of Spivack’s work has been poetry and short stories (she has eight other books and had poems and stories published hundreds of times). Her latest work is a novel called “Unspeakable Things,” which will be reading from on Wednesday, June 1 at 7 p.m. at Newtonville Books, 10 Langley Road in Newton Centre.

Entertainment

Final Tremedal Concert Features Folk Singer/Songwriter Joe Crookston

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The final Tremedal Concert for the season features multi-talented musician Joe Crookston. Crookston will perform Saturday, May 21 at 8 p.m. at the First Parish Church in Watertown, 35 Church St. in Watertown. Proceeds from the concert helps Tremedal help students from our Sister Community in El Salvador, Nueva Esperanza, attend high school and college. Tremedal wrote up the following information:

A songwriter, singer, guitarist, painter, fiddler, claw hammer banjo player, eco-village member and believer in all things possible. The magic and the musical world he creates will pull you in.

Entertainment

Artist Offering Classes for Children, Adults at Watertown Gallery

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This summer, Nayda A. Cuevas will be artist-in-residence at Room 83 Spring, an art space in Watertown, the artist announced. Referencing traditional portraiture and the selfie trend, Nayda paints naturalistic representations of people in oil on canvas. Her project consists of an ongoing collection of carefully observed miniature portraits seeking to challenge how our culture consumes digital images at an alarming rate and volume, without devoting time or energy to digest, contemplate, and understand what we see. Nayda will be working at Room 83 Spring during the months of July and August on her series #Latina: Reclaiming the Latina tag, intent on creating active dialogue outside of cyber space. The artist encourages Latina women to join her in reclaiming the hashtag, by posting selfies that express what it truly means to be a Latina on the Tumblr blog Reclaiming the Latina Tag.

Entertainment

Mark Wahlberg Shoots Scene from ‘Patriots Day’ at Watertown Gas Station

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The crowd gathered across the Main Street had a hard time seeing who was the focus of all the cameras and bright lights, but when the unmistakable voice rang out, it was clear it was Boston’s own Mark Wahlberg – star of the Boston Marathon Bombing film “Patriots Day.” In the scene that was being shot on Monday night, Wahlberg rushes out of the gas station and yells about something going on in “Watertown.” Then he jumped into a silver sedan and peels out of the gas station and headed east on Main Street. The Main Street Mobile gas station at Main Street and Waverley Avenue stood in for a gas station in Cambridge. The police cars parked in front bore Cambridge Police name, not Watertown.

Entertainment

Watertown Art Gallery’s New Show features Paintings of Two Artists

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Room 83 Spring in Watertown is pleased to present Line/Place/Time/Trace, paintings by Katherine Porter and wirework by Ellen Wieske, with an opening reception on May 8.  

Poetry – in paint and in wire. Porter and Wieske distill essence from the everyday, from lives lived and things cherished. In paintings and wire reliefs, agile amalgamations of form and content unify – the geometric and figurative, the abstract and narrative, the natural and archetypal. Timelessness.